


Geography

by Kaesa



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Character Study, Friendship, Gen, Undertale Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:07:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25237459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaesa/pseuds/Kaesa
Summary: Between his daily routines and his puzzles, everything in Snowdin works perfectly, like a machine envisioned by a genius, designed and assembled by a clever engineer, and maintained perfectly by a watchful, diligent skeleton called Papyrus. And someday, that machine will produce exactly what Papyrus wants -- to be recognized as special, important, and above all, very cool and amazing. He just has to keep at it.All of his plans melt into nothing when the human traipses into Snowdin.
Relationships: Flowey & Papyrus (Undertale), Frisk & Papyrus (Undertale), Papyrus & Undyne (Undertale)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 49





	Geography

Papyrus loves Snowdin -- he loves its dark, inky skies and mysterious forests, the crunch of bone-white snow under his feet, and the smiles of the friendly townsfolk. They find him a little confusing sometimes, but that's okay. He finds himself a little confusing too sometimes!

Sometimes just at the edges of his skull he feels strange ideas pulling at him, concerns about the shapes of the rooms in his and Sans' house, and half-formed memories about people he doesn't think he knows.

It's probably nothing.

When it gets to be too much, he goes and talks to his good friend Flowey, who always seems to be hiding somewhere nearby. Flowey is always cheerful, always encouraging, and... maybe a little too intense? But Papyrus knows he means well.

Anyway, he's happy here in Snowdin. He has never lived anywhere else -- not ever. Definitely not! He would know if he had.

Between his daily routines and his puzzles, everything here works perfectly, like a machine envisioned by a genius, designed and assembled by a clever engineer, and maintained perfectly by a watchful, diligent skeleton called Papyrus. And someday, that machine will produce exactly what Papyrus wants -- to be recognized as special, important, and above all, very cool and amazing. He just has to keep at it.

* * *

All of his plans melt into nothing when the human traipses into Snowdin. They win Papyrus' heart in a whirlwind friend-mance, then trudge away into Waterfall, taking his dreams of Royal Guard-dom with them. He's terrified that Undyne won't see how cool they are, terrified that after this he'll have two less friends instead of one more. He lies to Undyne to buy her time, but it's the human who makes her give up, by fleeing into a lava field. He knows she still needs convincing, even after all that.

So he stands outside Undyne's window and tricks her, very cleverly, into rising to the greatest challenge of all: friendship! Thankfully, the only casualty is Undyne's house, and all of his friends are friends and everything will be fine forever. Only they're not.

* * *

Papyrus finds something about Hotland repellent, but he doesn't know what. All those conveyor belts, all that... heat... it's familiar, somehow, but not good. It's the puzzles, he decides. They lack finesse. With all due respect to Dr. Alphys, lasers can never replace the authentically pointy experience of spikes.

There's something _else_ though, something... underneath Hotland? Or perhaps just beside it? It whispers to him and he doesn't like it, and actually, no, that's probably just Sans again, playing tricks on him. Isn't that just like Sans, to come home and be obnoxious specifically when he should be at work?

Wait. Lava. _That's_ what's underneath Hotland. Papyrus understands now. It's logical to be disconcerted by rock that's also a liquid on fire. He stops letting it worry him so much, and concentrates on working with Undyne to figure out the nonsensical elevator bank naming scheme the ridiculous people of Hotland have come up with.

"I lava good volcano pun, they're a blast, but I gotta say, technically it's magma," Sans tells him.

"I wasn't talking to you!" Papyrus tells him. "I wasn't even talking at all! Go do one of your four jobs!"

Sans sidles away, probably to go and find somewhere comfortable to nap.

* * *

Papyrus doesn't want to think about what's going to happen at the palace. He is, of course, exceptionally good at everything he does, and what he's doing now is avoiding thinking about upsetting things, like, for example, what Asgore, who is so very kind, is going to do to the human who's befriended Papyrus and the rest of the Underground.

He tries to have faith in Frisk's natural abilities. They are, after all, extremely cool, and also neato. Maybe that will win him over?

Undyne's face is grim when he suggests it. Frisk is _very_ cool, but they're probably not the first cool human Asgore's met. Or the second. Maybe not even the seventh.

* * *

Weirdly, it feels like whole lifetimes have happened and then been redacted when Papyrus follows Undyne to the dump to spy on -- to _meet up with_ Alphys and Frisk. He suspects Undyne's suggested this to distract him from the whole Asgore vs Humanity problem, which is silly because he's already Not Thinking About It so well! But also, Papyrus will take any opportunity to leap out of a pile of garbage and shout while posing dramatically.

It's only when Alphys bursts into tears ten seconds later that he realizes he's not the only one who's been Not Thinking About something terrible. He takes her very home very fast, and calls the coolest friend he has to see what they can do for her. Frisk has helped so many people, after all! Also, the longer Frisk spends helping Alphys, the longer it will be before they have to go talk to Asgore. Papyrus just hopes it's enough to save all three of them.

* * *

Flowey alerts him that Frisk has gone to Asgore after all, because Flowey is a good friend who wants only the best for Papyrus, and Papyrus is a good friend who wants only the best for Frisk, so of course Flowey would risk sending Papyrus into a panic telling him this. What a great friend!

Of course, Papyrus tells Undyne and Sans. Undyne rushes off to the Capital, because she's a hero. Sans says "See ya there!" and walks in the wrong direction, towards those creepy ruins, because he's a lazy slob. Papyrus knows he'll see Sans there anyway, because that's how Sans works.

Once he gets to the palace... something happens. It's a smooth, hollow space in Papyrus' memory, like a missing tooth. It's familiar.

He doesn't think about that, or about how familiar Hotland was as he raced through it. He doesn't wonder _why_ Sans works that way.

He doesn't care about that. Frisk's eyes are closed and they aren't saying anything, which is normal, but, very unusually, they're lying on the floor motionless. He remembers, from some far-off history lesson, that _humans don't turn to dust when they die._ Skeletons don't have tear ducts, and he's a particularly cool skeleton, so of course he doesn't cry, but tears appear on his face somehow, mysteriously, until the king's clone reminds him gently that humans _breathe,_ and since Frisk's chest is rising and falling, they are probably still alive.

The real king lends him a handkerchief -- it's purple, with the Delta Rune embroidered on it in gold thread -- and Papyrus dries his tears and blows his nasal cavity, and when the human wakes up, he looks like a cool dude once again.

* * *

The Surface is bright, and full of weather and wind; the sky changes colors, and the sun is much too bright to look at. It's amazing, and he can't wait to explore it.

When he finds them, the humans are very excited to see Papyrus, the official mascot of all monsters! They are maybe... _too_ excited, because there's screaming, and somebody faints. He's thrilled, because that's how people react to extremely dreamy celebrities like Mettaton! He must be doing an exceptional mascotting job, and he hasn't even been on the job for a day!

Then the police show up. The police turn out to be a group of surprisingly grumpy humans whose job it is to distribute free bracelets and give people rides. But Papyrus takes his bracelets off in the back of the car once no one's looking, because, while it was a nice thought, they're _such_ ugly bracelets, and really impractical. What if Papyrus wants to show the police his cool special attack? He can't do that nearly as well with these silly bracelets on.

Alas, when they get to the police station, the humans are very touchy about fashion, and Papyrus feels awful about it. Fortunately, Frisk and Asgore are able to smooth it all over, but it takes a while.

Thankfully, things settle down a lot after that first day. Within a few months he and Sans have a house that looks exactly, suspiciously like the one in Snowdin, and the rest of the monsters are gradually finding Surface places to live too. Nobody faints anymore when they see Papyrus, but they do ask him for his autograph, which is amazing.

Everything's great, except... Flowey's not there. He has so many friends now, and Flowey would love them all, he's sure of it! So Papyrus ventures down into the Ruins to try and talk him into coming up to the Surface.

He calls Papyrus a loser and an idiot, but Papyrus knows he doesn't mean that. He leaves, because Flowey probably wants to be alone to process the honor of receiving a visit from the Great Papyrus even now that Papyrus is so important and famous.

On his next trip, Flowey sighes and glares at Papyrus. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Nope!" says Papyrus. It's true. There is nothing better he could be doing than to help the coolest and nicest flower he knows.

Flowey cries. He won't explain himself, but he won't come with Papyrus either. Papyrus dries his tears with the king's handkerchief, which makes Flowey cry even harder for some reason.

"Well, if you won't come to the Surface, I guess I'm going to have to keep coming here! That way you'll have no choice but to keep being friends with me!" Papyrus says, after Flowey has calmed down a little.

"Fine," said Flowey, glaring -- but Papyrus is pretty sure he's okay with that, really. "And, and don't you dare bring that wimpy loser Frisk."

"I will bring Frisk the next time I come here and every time after that!" Papyrus says, amenably, and Flowey glares a little more. But in a friendly way.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for [Papyrus Day](https://skeleplatypus.tumblr.com/post/620926180103798785/papyrus-day-is-coming-again-heres-some-ways)! We could all use a friend like Papyrus, I think.


End file.
